Fen End Pit's Blog

David.

It's all looking very nice indeed.

Regarding the facing lock mechanism, if you want the lock to be visible, Ambis do a very nice etched version. Otherwise, you can hide it all under a ramp type cover. On mechanical rodding FPL's, there was usually a detector bar on the inside of one of the rails to prevent unlocking if any stock was standing too close to the point switch.

Hope you don't mind, but here a some photos of how I represented this on my Holt layout. It was ex-LNWR so the arrangements might not be quite right for your location, but the principles probably apply.

Overall arrangement with FPL to the left and the fouling bar drive to the right. The bar is inside the lower rail.

 

FPL with drive and representation of point blade and lock detector rods. In this case, the FPL was actually moved by a connection from the detector bar, rather than direct from the signal box. Thus, if the bar was broken or became disconnected, the FPL could not be moved and the signals not pulled off.

 

Fouling bar moved from the far end so that a broken bar does not give false indication. Spring device took the weight of the bar to reduce the effort needed to operate.

 

The bar itself, was made from brass angle with the Ambis cranks soldered on using a simple card jig. To plant the bar, pegs were attached to push into holes in the cork underlay. I had to cut off the bottom of the cranks to get the bar to sit at the right height, so as not to catch on wheel flanges. Unlike the prototype, my bar is not attached to the rail.

 

Hope that gives you some useful ideas.

 

Dave.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Dave Holt

Thanks Dave, that is really useful and matches the GER prototype information I can find pretty well too.

Time to singe the fingers again I think.

David

Representing the 'ghost sleepers' is  an intriguing idea, maybe a stencil cut out in paper with a silhouette cutter (unless your monster laser can be tamed enough), and some wafting with an airbrush in darker colours.

 

Once again I am glad I do not have to bother with point dodding!

Very impressive, i struggle with Wills plastic rodding.

 

Nice work.

On 01/08/2019 at 12:11, Dave Holt said:

David.

It's all looking very nice indeed.

Regarding the facing lock mechanism, if you want the lock to be visible, Ambis do a very nice etched version. Otherwise, you can hide it all under a ramp type cover. On mechanical rodding FPL's, there was usually a detector bar on the inside of one of the rails to prevent unlocking if any stock was standing too close to the point switch.

Hope you don't mind, but here a some photos of how I represented this on my Holt layout. It was ex-LNWR so the arrangements might not be quite right for your location, but the principles probably apply.

Overall arrangement with FPL to the left and the fouling bar drive to the right. The bar is inside the lower rail.

 

FPL with drive and representation of point blade and lock detector rods. In this case, the FPL was actually moved by a connection from the detector bar, rather than direct from the signal box. Thus, if the bar was broken or became disconnected, the FPL could not be moved and the signals not pulled off.

 

Fouling bar moved from the far end so that a broken bar does not give false indication. Spring device took the weight of the bar to reduce the effort needed to operate.

 

The bar itself, was made from brass angle with the Ambis cranks soldered on using a simple card jig. To plant the bar, pegs were attached to push into holes in the cork underlay. I had to cut off the bottom of the cranks to get the bar to sit at the right height, so as not to catch on wheel flanges. Unlike the prototype, my bar is not attached to the rail.

 

Hope that gives you some useful ideas.

 

Dave.

The footpath up to the castle has been shored up with boards held in place by some very suspicious T shaped material. I have a photo somewhere.